MIAMI — The Golden State Warriors are resting Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Otto Porter Jr. on Wednesday against the Miami Heat, the second night of a back-to-back.
The move isn’t necessarily out of character for the Warriors — they’ve been resting Thompson and Porter on one end of back-to-back games all season long. But the decision to rest this trio is more notable because the Warriors are without Stephen Curry and currently find themselves on a three-game losing streak.
Two of those losses, to the San Antonio Spurs and Orlando Magic, were games Golden State not only knew it could win without Curry, but needed to win.
For the Heat, Tyler Herro (knee) and Gabe Vincent (toe) were both ruled out.
Wednesday’s game has sizable implications for playoff seeding in the West.
If the Warriors lose to the Heat — and the Utah Jazz beat the Boston Celtics — there will be just one loss separating Golden State and Utah in the Western Conference standings, opening up that third spot to both the Jazz and the Minnesota Timberwolves.